Residents, Board Clash Over Morton School Tax-hike Proposal

February 12, 1993|By Hal Dardick.

The Morton High School District 201 board meeting turned raucous Wednesday night when a group of about 50 property tax hike referendum foes peppered school board members with questions about district expenses.

At one point during the question and answer session at the end of the regular board meeting, Cicero Homeowners Association President Franklin J. Skorski and a high school gym teacher had to be separated by audience members, after the gym teacher approached Skorski and asked him "to step outside."

Board member John Berger of Cicero also approached Skorski after the meeting and chastised him for comments made about recently deceased Cicero Town President Henry Klosak.

The referendum foes-including Skorski and Berwyn City Treasurer Mary Karasek-questioned board members about more than $66,000 spent on school board and administrative expenses from 1990 to 1992 and $44,000 spent on public relations during the 1991-92 school year.

Additional questions concerned the use of school computers by board members in their homes, the alleged use of school postal meters to mail literature supporting the referendum-which the board denied-and the future travel plans of board and administration members.

The confrontation came just 13 days before a referendum in Cicero, Berwyn, Stickney, McCook, Forest View and portions of Lyons to raise district taxes. Passage of the proposal would result in a $79 property tax increase on a home with a fair market value of $100,000.

Since the board voted two months ago to put the question on the ballot, it has come under intense scrutiny. Skorski, Karasek, a group of Berwyn homeowners and Taxpayers United have filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain financial documents from the city.

The meeting became raucous after Superintendent Allen J. Klingenberg asked the board to adjourn the meeting prior to the audience question session. Board President George Brugess rejected that idea.

Klingenberg, who was hired by the board last May, defended the board expenses after the meeting.

He contended some of the expenses precluded greater outlays of money, because board members performed duties typically done by highly paid consultants.

For example, he defended an August 1992 strategic planning trip by 25 board members and administrators to The Abbey in Lake Geneva, Wis., which cost the district nearly $17,000.

He said that trip, along with a resident survey performed by one of the public relations firms, resulted in a strategic plan to improve education at Morton.

He accused Skorski and Karasek of furthering their own political agendas to the detriment of the district. "People are trying to attack the referendum for personal reasons," he said.

Karasek, who was a Morton board member and has held elected office in Berwyn since 1968, chafed at Klingenberg's comments.

"That's the old copout," she said. "I've been elected to office so many times, I don't need Dr. Klingenberg. . . . I just don't like people who steal money."